Lawmakers blasted Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King Wednesday for his controversial remarks, calling the children of undocumented immigrants drug mules.

“It’s no wonder that the American people continue to see Republicans as out of touch when comments like these are made,” Rep. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) said on the House floor.

King has been drawing criticism from colleagues — even his party’s leadership — for his comments to the conservative news outlet Newsmax last week, which came up at a House hearing Tuesday on legalizing the children of undocumented immigrants.

“For everyone who’s a valedictorian, there’s another 100 out there that weigh 130 pounds and they’ve got calves the size of cantaloupes because they’re hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert,” King said. “Those people would be legalized with the same act.”

Wednesday, King brushed off the response from his House colleagues.

“My colleagues wouldn’t criticize me if they read any quote from me, would they?” he told POLITICO just off the House floor.

New Jersey Democrat Albio Sires took offense, saying his parents brought him to the U.S. at age 11 but never taught him to strap marijuana to his leg. He called King’s characterization “quite frankly, stupid.”

Rep. Rubén Hinojosa (D-Texas) said the comments ignored the fact that so-called DREAMers would add more than 200,000 college diplomas to the workforce, and Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-Calif.) said statements like King’s “exacerbate partisanship.”

Rep. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho) bashed King and the press for focusing on the remarks.

“I think his comments were irresponsible and reprehensible,” Labrador said at a panel with conservative House members. “I think what he said was out of touch with the conference. I hope that if he thought about it, he wouldn’t say such a thing again.”

But Labrador didn’t stop there. He said the media was failing by not printing what every Republican on Tuesday’s hearing on the DREAM Act had said but instead focusing on King.

“All you guys can do is fan the flames of one person making a reprehensible and irresponsible,” Labrador said, speaking to a room full for reporters. “Shame on him, shame on the media for only concentrating on that aspect of it.”

The ire on Wednesday followed House Speaker John Boehner’s condemnation of King’s remarks late Tuesday, when he said policy disagreements do not warrant “hateful language.” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said he also disagreed with the comments.